Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have identified any current functions of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner that will not be transferred to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner under the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill; and if so, what plans they are making to continue those functions in the future.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 sets out the functions of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner. Broadly speaking they are to promote compliance by police with the rules on DNA and fingerprints, and to promote good practice by police and local authorities in the use of surveillance cameras respectively.
Overall, the responses to the public consultation on data reform in 2021 indicated that oversight in these areas was crowded and confusing and there was support for simplification. In response the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill abolishes both posts but transfers the Biometrics Commissioner’s casework functions to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.
A number of other bodies already operate in this space and will continue to do so. This includes the Information Commissioner’s Office, which amongst other things regulates and promotes good practice by all organisations’ in their use of biometrics and surveillance cameras, including police and local authorities; the Forensic Science Regulator, which ensures that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards; the Forensic Information Database Strategy Board, which oversees use of the police DNA and fingerprint databases; the College of Policing, which sets requirements, accredits, quality assures and delivers learning and professional development for policing; His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces; the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates the most serious complaints and conduct matters involving the police, and sets the standards by which the police should handle complaints; the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which regulates compliance with equality and human rights law; and the British Standards Institute, which develops British Standards.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making towards reaching their 'Places for Growth' target to relocate 50 per cent of UK-based senior civil service roles outside London by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Places for Growth Programme has relocated 30.9% of the UK-based Senior Civil Service outside of London since March 2020. The programme continues to engage closely with departments to accelerate SCS role relocations outside London in order to meet the 2030 50% commitment.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they next plan to update their Magenta Book: Central government guidance on evaluation.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) is responsible for the Magenta Book: Central Government guidance on evaluation.
The ETF plans to update the Magenta Book by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had about securing the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and what steps they are taking to promote media freedom globally.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have called for Evan Gershkovich's immediate release. Senior UK officials regularly raise his case with Russian counterparts. The UK also remains in close contact with the US, which is providing consular support. The UK has condemned the Russian state's systematic repression of media freedom in various fora, including the UN Human Rights Council, General Assembly and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). As a co-founder of the Media Freedom Coalition, the UK is committed to media freedom and holding to account those who violate or restrict it. Fifty coalition countries work together to promote and protect media freedom globally.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they are making to the government of Iran regarding that country's recent missile attacks on Pakistan and Iraq.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK condemned the Iranian regime's attacks in Erbil on 15 January which killed civilians including UK-Iraqi national Karam Mikhael, and against targets in Pakistan on the 16 January. These actions were an unacceptable violation of both Iraq and Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have long condemned Iran's destabilising activity in its neighbourhood and wider region. The Foreign Secretary made clear to the Iranian Foreign Minister on 17 January that Iran must stop using the regional situation as cover to act recklessly and violate the sovereignty of others.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the Government's Major Projects Portfolio are subject to a formal evaluation of their outcomes; and whether the proportion has increased since 2020.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
A review by the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit in 2019 found that only 8% of the spending on Major Projects had robust impact evaluation plans. The Evaluation Task Force is currently undertaking a new review of evaluation in the current Government Major Projects Portfolio, which now represents £805 billion of whole-life costs, compared with £432 billion in 2019. The findings from this new review, alongside an action plan that describes how improvements will be made, is planned to be published this year.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the cybersecurity of publicly-funded cultural institutions after the recent cyberattack on the British Library.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government Cyber Security Strategy sets out our plan significantly to harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attacks by 2025, with all Government organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities no later than 2030. We are working closely with publicly-funded institutions to enhance their overall cyber-resilience and to ensure that these targets are met.
The National Cyber Security Centre and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have been working closely with the British Library since the cyber-attack it sustained in October 2023. The British Library is working hard to restore its services and began a phased return of key services on 15 January 2024.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the position of the government of Venezuela regarding Guyana's Essequibo region, the security situation in Guyana, and UK's support for the territorial integrity of Guyana.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela with respect to the Essequibo region of Guyana. We believe the unilateral actions of Venezuela are unjustified and should cease. We are clear that the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration. The UK supports Guyana's territorial integrity. The Foreign Secretary has reassured President Ali of this. We continue to work with regional partners and international bodies to de-escalate tensions.
Minister Rutley visited Guyana on 18 December to show UK support for its territorial integrity.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what priorities they have identified in their work to promote freedom of religion or belief; and what is in outline the current plan of work for the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK's foremost priority on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is defending FoRB for all and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities.
We work through international bodies to strengthen coalitions of support and protect FoRB for all. We use our global diplomatic network to encourage States to uphold their human rights obligations, supporting this work with dedicated FoRB programme spend. And we continue to work to embed FoRB considerations across the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Prime Minister's Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, is currently serving as Chair of the 42-country International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), which she is working to grow and strengthen. Alongside her counterparts from other countries, the Special Envoy works through IRFBA to champion FoRB, highlighting international best practice and raising awareness of, and challenging, FoRB violations and abuses across the world.
The Special Envoy works closely with civil society to highlight FoRB issues, and is leading a series of roundtables in the FCDO to strengthen collaboration on FoRB between FCDO officials and civil society.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what standard of scientific evidence they require when commissioning internal and external evaluations of their policies and programmes; and whether they routinely require that an objective standard of evidence be met by, for example, mandating use of the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale or similar.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Evaluation is a Treasury requirement for all Government policies and programmes. All evaluations of Government policies and programmes must be carried out in line with the evaluation standards in the Magenta Book (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-magenta-book), which is Treasury guidance on how evaluations should be undertaken. Annex A of the Magenta Book details the analytical methods which can be used. All Ministerial Departments have published an evaluation strategy on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/evaluation-strategies-from-uk-government-departments), publicly setting out how they will meet the required standards.
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) was established in 2021 with the aim of increasing the quality and quantity of evaluations conducted across Government. The ETF works closely with evaluation leads within Departments to advise on evaluation designs and application of evaluation methods and to ensure that Government evaluations are robust and are delivered to a high analytical standard. This involves identifying the most proportionate and robust method(s) suitable for each policy or programme in question.
The ETF does not have a routine set of requirements which Departments are held to, because the most appropriate method for each evaluation is specific to the policy and programme context. In some cases methods which score lower on the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale may represent the most robust and proportionate approaches for a Government policy or programme. While the ETF works with Departments to ensure that the most robust methods possible are applied to each policy or programme, this is done on a case-by-case basis rather than through the application of a scale or framework.